Vacaville Unified School District staff undergoing 'the churn'

Personnel and job changes, colloquially called "the churn" in the business world, are under way in Vacaville Unified School District.

VUSD Superintendent John Niederkorn announced several changes at a May 16 board meeting, and Randy Henry, the district's chief of human resources, on Friday provided an update on even more district turnovers, including a top administrator's retirement.

Longtime Associate Superintendent Shereene Wilkerson will retire on June 30, after 37 years of service to public schools.

David Robertson, director of human resources, will resign to take a job as assistant superintendent in Martinez Unified. His last day is June 30, Henry said.

Longtime Orchard Elementary Principal Christie Cochran plans to retire. She will be replaced by Claudia Barba, an elementary principal from San Jose Unified.

A former school administrator in Paradise, Adam Rich has been named the new assistant principal at Will C. Wood High School, replacing Jonathan Cole, who has taken an administrator's job in Temecula.

Sean Keating, an English teacher from Vintage High in Napa, has been named as assistant principal at Vacaville High.

Other personnel changes include Luci del Rio-Ramirez, the principal at Hemlock Elementary School. She has been named the new principal at Padan Elementary, replacing Sylvia Rodriguez, who has been reassigned to another, as-yet-unspecified administrative position in the 12,500-student school district, Henry said.

Replacing del Rio-Ramirez at Hemlock will be Griselda Rodriguez (no relation to Sylvia Rodriguez), an assistant principal at Vacaville High.

Henry said it was unlikely any more resignations or retirements for the current academic year, which ends June 30, would be announced.

VUSD, which experienced increased enrollment last fall, may be hiring more elementary school teachers in the fall, he noted.

"It all depends on the governor's Local Control Funding Formula," Henry said, referring to the Democrat's desire to give school districts more control of the money they receive from the state and provide poorer districts with a larger share of state aid. "If that comes through, we'll be hiring five more elementary teachers. We're not going to do that until July."

Lawmakers have until June 15 to adopt a balanced budget.

While the number of job changes and personnel turnover may seem high, it is not necessarily unusual, Henry said.

On the district's web site, www.vacavilleusd.org, more than 30 new openings, part-time and full-time jobs, certificated (teacher) and classified (school support), have been posted. They include notices for a lead custodian, a teacher's aide, a resource specialist, school secretary, a counselor, a special day class teacher, art teacher, cafeteria manager, bilingual teachers, and independent study teachers.

"We put out the green light to all our sites" to post job openings, Henry said.

Earlier this month, Kim Forrest, director of instruction, curriculum and assessment, told district trustees that the transitional kindergarten program likely would expand from two classrooms, possibly to three more, depending on the number of enrollments.

Henry said the current number of parental sign-ups indicate that at least one new transitional kindergarten teacher will be needed in the coming school year, which begins Aug. 15.

Niederkorn, who retired June 30 bit agreed to stay on with the district until a new superintendent was selected, steps away from his desk for the last time on June 30. He will be replaced by Ken Jacopetti, superintendent of Byron Union School District in the East Bay, who begins work on July 1.